And then, you slowly dip your soba noodles mouthful by mouthful into the broth, all the while sipping buckwheat tea.

At the end, when there are no more noodles to dunk, put the soba water into the duck soup from the soba-yu, and drink it up.

(The buckwheat is from the nearby town of Lankoshi, everything is local here.)

The sweet scallions, caramelized, and then tempura-ed, were irresistible. This convinced me to order a plate of tempura vegetables. It did not disappoint – I thought the tempura technique at least as good as Michelin-starred tempura restaurant Asagi in Tokyo…